Martyr in Salfit and arrest campaign targeting 16 Palestinians amidst warnings of 'chaos' at West Bank checkpoints

The young Palestinian Mustafa Taha Khatib was martyred this Thursday morning, as a result of being shot by the Israeli occupation army during an incursion targeting the village of Sarta, north of the occupied West Bank. Local sources reported that a military force raided the village, located west of Salfit city, stormed the young man's home, and shot him directly inside, leading to critical injuries from which he was transferred to the hospital where his death was announced.

The assassination operation coincided with a widespread raid and arrest campaign launched by occupation forces in various areas of the West Bank, resulting in the arrest of at least 16 citizens. Human rights sources confirmed that the campaign targeted children and local officials, with homes being ransacked and their residents terrorized in the early hours of dawn.

In Nablus Governorate, military vehicles stormed the town of Huwara and the villages of Qaryut and Majdal Bani Fadil, where they carried out thorough searches and property destruction. These incursions resulted in the arrest of Huwara municipal council member Mohammed Saed Odeh, in addition to the two children Tamim Ma'mar and Yaman Ashraf Othman, who are both under sixteen years old.

Arrests also targeted citizens from the town of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya, and five young men from the village of Deir Qaddis, west of Ramallah city. These field movements come within the framework of an ongoing escalation since October 8, 2023, with official statistics indicating that the number of detainees in the West Bank has reached approximately 23,000 Palestinians.

On the internal legal front of the occupation, reports revealed a strongly worded letter sent by Lieutenant Colonel Kobi Marcus, the legal advisor for the West Bank area in the Military Advocate General's office. In his letter addressed to the commander of the Central Command, Avi Bluth, Marcus warned of a state of 'leadership and legal chaos' prevailing in the management of Palestinian movement and transit in the occupied territories.

The legal advisor explained that the army imposes restrictions and military checkpoints in a manner that violates operational orders and commitments made by the state before the Israeli Supreme Court. He pointed out that field commanders are now making decisions to close roads and erect checkpoints without obtaining the necessary legal approvals or professional recommendations from the civil administration.

Sources stated that the letter focused on physical checkpoints that last for more than 24 hours, emphasizing that they are implemented without completing the required official procedures. Marcus considered that these practices have become a fixed pattern since the outbreak of the war, emptying previous legal commitments of their content and weakening central military oversight.

The document criticized the absence of official documentation for these checkpoints, which led to a state of field ambiguity making it difficult to distinguish between official security measures and checkpoints illegally erected by settlers. This overlap, according to the letter, contributes to increased tension and arbitrary violation of the basic rights of Palestinian residents.

The legal advisor stressed that ignoring the procedures committed to by the state before the Supreme Court in 2017 represents a dangerous regression from administrative principles. That commitment came after petitions submitted by heads of Palestinian councils against movement restriction policies that stifle villages and cities in the West Bank.

In a related context, field data shows that the escalating Israeli operations have so far resulted in the martyrdom of 1,173 Palestinians and the injury of more than 12,000 others with varying degrees of wounds. These figures reflect the scale of military escalation accompanying the policies of siege and the fragmentation of Palestinian areas through the increasing system of checkpoints.

Marcus concluded in his warning that the continued imposition of these restrictions without a clear legal basis not only constitutes a violation of individual rights but also starkly contradicts the principles of international law. This internal legal testimony places the occupation army in direct confrontation with its claims about adherence to legal standards in its administration of the occupied territories.

Continued imposition of restrictions without a clear legal basis constitutes a violation of fundamental rights and contradicts the principles of administrative law and international law.